Trump 2018: Resistance is Never Futile

[lionheart]

To pick up on the Star Trek motif.

This rang true for me

Melissa McEwan
@Shakestweetz
One of the primary reasons for widespread complacency about Trump is the presumption that he is, to use the ubiquitous though disablist term, "an idiot," and that "idiots" don't do much damage. Oh but they do. Ignorant and malicious is a thoroughly dangerous combination.

I have to disagree, Across. I think he is.

I am at his latest round of tweets. He sounds like a petulant teenagers, like.

It came up as a newsfeed on my phone when I was out shopping. I read it out to DS much to the amusement and sniggering of my fellow shoppers.

Whatever he is, the destination is dangerous.

www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pol-trump-probe-20180106-story.html

Interestingly, it also says this:

Investigators also are exploring the involvement of the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, who did not attend the half-hour sit-down on June 9, 2016, but briefly spoke with two of the participants, a Russian lawyer and a Russian-born Washington lobbyist. Details of the encounter were not previously known.

It occurred at the Trump Tower elevator as the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and the lobbyist, Rinat Akhmetshin, were leaving the building and consisted of pleasantries, a person familiar with the episode said. But Mueller’s investigators want to know every contact the two visitors had with Trump’s family members and inner circle.

Delurking because ....

I was driving earlier and listening to an LBC phone in on Trump. All male callers and describing Trump as a strong leader (in contrast to Obama). The genius tweet was described as clever social media and the sign of a confident man. No-one suggested he was narcissistic or unhinged.

Similarly, a friend said the extracts he read in the Guardian suggested Wolff lived in fantasy land and writing fiction. He was particularly dismissive of the growing dementia description. He recognised the symptoms from his mother, but refused to accept POTUS was suffering from them.

He has dismissed comments I've made in the past as conspiracy theories. When I told him there was nothing I'd heard so far from the Wolff book that I wasn't aware of and the dementia/narcissist allegations were generally accepted in US media. I also mentioned the work Amy Siskind was doing and why. He was amazed, but still very sceptical. These things just don't happen.

It made me

1. Appreciate how much I have benefited from this thread, and access to US media.
2. Be very frustrated that other people are still ignorant (in the kindest way) of what is happening. It made me realise again how Germany walked into nazism, and how most of the rest of world ignored what was happening or sided with them.

www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/donald-trump-goes-full-fredo/549875/

"Who and what Donald Trump is has been known to everyone and anyone who cared to know for years and decades. Before he was president, he was the country’s leading racist conspiracy theorist. Before he was the country’s leading racist conspiracy theorist, he was a celebrity gameshow host. Before he was a celebrity gameshow host, he was the multi-bankrupt least trusted name in real estate. Before he was the multi-bankrupt least trusted name in real estate, he was the protege of Roy Cohn’s repeatedly accused of ties to organized crime. From the start, Donald Trump was a man of many secrets, but no mysteries. Inscribed indelibly on the public record were the reasons for responsible people to do everything in their power to bar him from the presidency."

"Instead, since he announced his candidacy in mid-2015, Donald Trump has been enabled and protected."

"The enabling and protecting not only continues. It accelerates."

There might have been some self-selection there. Gump. My 'bellwether' on these matters calls him 'thick'. Any reference to 'ocean waters' send him into peals of laughter.

A strong leader?? Extraordinary.

I'm not saying they were a representative sample, cozie, but it was still a bit
My friend isn't stupid and usually quite clued up politically - anti Brexit, left of centre. So his very deliberate refusal to engage with what is happening made me think. Generally I find people see Trump as either a joke or someone who doesn't have much influence on their lives. Heads in sand.

Another fail.

www.wsj.com/articles/trump-nominee-to-lead-indian-health-services-faces-claims-of-misrepresentation-1515170335

What an image.

David Nakamura
‏
Verified account

@DavidNakamura
19m19 minutes ago
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Trump, Cabinet and GOP leadership meet at Camp David. Only woman is Homeland Security Sec. Kristen Nielsen

A very good question.

Joy Reid‏Verified account
@JoyAnnReid

This begs the question: why are so many Republicans so determined to investigate and potentially jail anyone who could incriminate (or who merely displeases) Donald Trump?

The GOP supported Trump because they thought they could use him to get what they wanted. They still do think they can use him to get what they want. They also know that if they admit to his failings they are all implicated and the Republican Party will be screwed for generations (if it survives at all). Of course they are desperately fighting against anything that opens up that can of worms. I don't think that's really much of a mystery.

So he is whinging about people saying whatever they like???!!! Pot-kettle-kettle-pot.

I think the other part of the answer is the possibility that the RNC was also hacked. It would explain some of the notable reversals that have taken place.

Lordy, I hope there are tapes.

https://twitter.com/BBCBreaking/status/949692137079111680/video/1

I'm pretty sure many of the GOP senior senators are compromised in some way or another that is buying their obsequious compliance. It's why Hatch is going and Ryan is trying to slide out of the door without Trump noticing.

That's an interesting theory lionheart.

I mean, it would be odd if the RNC hadn't been hacked, given the hackers were probably the Russians with the motive of distabilisation. Any kompromat gained from that hasn't been published so... does that mean the Russians haven't used it at all? Or... what?

You might find this of interest perking

amp.fastcompany.com/40507354/with-trump-the-gop-is-playing-a-game-of-diminishing-returns?__twitter_impression=true

To note. A Beast piece.

Children's Health Insurance

'Lindsey Graham and Chuck Grassley, who have long been two of the most reasonable Republican villains in the Senate, knowingly crossed a line when they demanded that Trump-Russia dossier author Christopher Steele be prosecuted for imaginary crimes simply because he’s an enemy of Trump. This is straight out of a banana republic. More importantly, it means that if and when a real democracy is restored, the likes of Graham and Grassley won’t be able to participate in government any longer; they may not even be able to exist outside of a prison cell. They know what they just staked themselves to with this move. They know there’s no coming back from it. They now have to burn it all down, or they go down.'

www.palmerreport.com/opinion/got-this-robert-mueller/7224/

www.palmerreport.com/analysis/oligarch-graham-lindsey-kremlin/7219/

The extract on Graham and Grassley doesn't pull any punches, does it?

Not at all.